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1980 film Rubbish Tips with The Two Ronnies

(March 2021)

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MA
Matt7924
I was looking at Ronnie Barker's entry on IMDB recently and I found an entry about what a short film called Rubbish Tips that was made in 1980. The cast list shows Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, as well as Patricia Hodge and another actress called Damaris Hayman who I've seen in 70s Doctor Who. However, it says Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise also appeared in the film. I found very little information online about Rubbish Tips and what surprised me is how it appears to feature both The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise. If the IMDB is correct, then I never knew both duos ever appeared in the same production.

I know The Two Ronnies did a few short films, but this Rubbish Tips seems like a real mystery.
MI
Michael
Could it be an in-house corporate gig? Like that OFAH episode made for the oil and petroleum industry?

EDIT: Appears to be a glorified PIF or similar. BFI lists it as "documentary / instructional film" sponsored by "National Anti-Waste Programme"
https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6db0e944
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Yes, IMDb has it down as "Central Office of Information (COI)" as a sponsor which is also what a lot of the original PIFs were credited to as well. So I'd say its a later variation of a PIF which may not be an "actual" PIF (as in "Charley Says").
SP
Steve in Pudsey
I gather that PIFs were known internally as "COIs" in some ITV regions.

There is a reference here to Rubbish Tips having been on the BFI's now defunct Vimeo channel, but it doesn't seem to be on the BFIplayer service, or the BFI Mediateque collection available to view at venues such as the Bradford media museum (when it reopens).
MA
Matt7924
Could it be an in-house corporate gig? Like that OFAH episode made for the oil and petroleum industry?

EDIT: Appears to be a glorified PIF or similar. BFI lists it as "documentary / instructional film" sponsored by "National Anti-Waste Programme"
https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6db0e944


Thanks. I got the impression it was similar to a PFI.

I can imagine The Two Ronnies and Eric and Ernie appearing separately as I would never have expected both duos to appear together
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
I can imagine The Two Ronnies and Eric and Ernie appearing separately as I would never have expected both duos to appear together


Why not? People didn't expect Bugs Bunny to appear in the same cartoon/film as Mickey Mouse. But it happened. Once.

Here's a picture of Morecambe & Wise with Ronnie Barker:
https://www.windsorexpress.co.uk/gallery/maidenhead/103472/remember-when-ronnie-barker-and-morecambe-and-wise-bring-sunshine-to-maidenhead.html labelled as "for a BBC programme press conference [in 1976] in Maidenhead". I don't know what the programme was, unless it was one of those "announcing the new seasons of programmes on the BBC" sort of things.
MA
Matt7924
I can imagine The Two Ronnies and Eric and Ernie appearing separately as I would never have expected both duos to appear together


Why not? People didn't expect Bugs Bunny to appear in the same cartoon/film as Mickey Mouse. But it happened. Once.

Here's a picture of Morecambe & Wise with Ronnie Barker:
https://www.windsorexpress.co.uk/gallery/maidenhead/103472/remember-when-ronnie-barker-and-morecambe-and-wise-bring-sunshine-to-maidenhead.html labelled as "for a BBC programme press conference [in 1976] in Maidenhead". I don't know what the programme was, unless it was one of those "announcing the new seasons of programmes on the BBC" sort of things.


Thanks for the link. I had read Ronnie Barker and Eric Morecambe were good friends. I watched The Two Ronnies in the late 80s, although it's the 22 years of The Two Ronnies compilations I remember better. Morecambe and Wise were before my time, I personally don't think they were as funny.

Whenever the BBC show Morecambe and Wise it's always the same old sketches like those with famous actors, Eric and Ernie in bed and Eric making fun of Des O'Connor. I looked on YouTube out of curiosity to see if there were any different Morecambe and Wise sketches and there was one where they were taking off Starsky and Hutch. It seems these compilation programmes don't represent all the types of sketches they did.

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